GreatPlains2012

Day 5

Sunday, 17 Jun 2012
Holly, CO to Garden City, KS
76.8 miles, 5h40m, 13.5 mph
Elapsed Time: 6h54m, Max speed: 25.9mph
Total Climbing: 874ft, Max elevation: 3455ft
Total mileage: 323.9

One thing I've learned from my bicycle travels is that you can't tell where you're going to get a great meal. Last year in Winchester, Tennessee I found a fantastic Mexican restaurant--where one would expect to get great barbeque. This year I expected great steak since I was riding past cattle all day. But no--the best meal I've had until last night was at Coors Field. But I finally had a really good dinner in Lamar, Colorado--at a Thai place.

And yes, it is really called "Thai Spicy Basil Asian Grill."

After a typical Holiday Inn Express breakfast, we loaded up the Dodge and headed for Holly. We drove past all the places we drove past twice already, and then for the first time on this trip I loaded up the bags.

Gray bike, gray bags, gray road. I would get a gray jersey I
would be completely invisible.

I headed east for Kansas. Linda headed west for Denver. <Sniff>. I'll see her again (and give her my bags!) somewhere in Missouri.

The scenery was the same as it's been.

I vowed to myself not to post any pictures of the road today. I'll just say that the road was pretty good. Of course, touring cyclists are obsessed with such things as rumble strip placement, pavement quality, and shoulder width. Kansas was a little better than Colorado--at least on US50.

I'm not going to cross many state lines on this trip. The bear jumped in and ruined my photo.

I didn't know it at the time, but I lost an hour when I passed that sign.

How do I stay sane when riding through the same scenery for hours? In the morning I like to listen to my surroundings. Birds. Whatever. Later, as the traffic picks up and the wind gets loud I pull out the iPod and listen to podcats or music. Today it was Car Talk and something about New York's influence on the Grateful Dead. Then music. The Dead and Bob Seger. "Against the Wind" was particularly relevant--although the wind was mostly with me today.

I stopped for lunch in Lakin. Their WWII memorial features a tank that
appears ready to blow up the rest of the memorial and then bulldoze it away.

US 50 roughly follows the Santa Fe Trail. This is one of the places where you can supposedly see the original wheel ruts from the covered wagons.

I'm not sure which ruts I'm supposed to look at--those look too new.

It was hot. My bike computer says it's 100 degrees--and it might have been right.

I took a short detour to Holcomb, KS, which is famous for the 1959 "In Cold Blood" murders. The murder of the Clutter family was the subject of Truman Capote's 1966 book--a classic of the true crime genre.

The local park is a memorial to the Clutter family.

From Holcomb it was a few miles to Garden City. I somehow got onto the wrong road and pedaled around town for a while before I got myself straightened out and found my hotel. Then I went to the Lone Star and consumed a steak (and several adult beverages).

So far, so good,

Tomorrow I head for Dodge City. It should be a fairly short day, though I'm not sure the wind will be favorable.

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